Federal police on Monday uncovered 4 tonnes of ephedrine in oil drums and boxes to be sent to Mexico and the US. The lead investigator called it the largest illegal shipment of the methamphetamine precursor ever seized in Argentina, worth millions.
The ephedrine, was imported from India and China, and discovered with the help of US Drug Enforcement and Interpol agents who have advised police investigating a group of Argentines and Mexican traffickers, Commissioner Miguel Castro said.
Castro, superintendent of investigations for the federal police, said the boxes were hidden in a furniture warehouse and the drums were found in another warehouse where one employee was arrested.
The chemical is worth between US$4,000 and US$6,000 per kilogram on the street in Argentina, but the traffickers planned to ship it to Mexico, where it sells for between US$10,000 and US$15,000 per kilogram to gangs that make methamphetamine for US consumers, Castro said.
Investigators suspect the chemical remained hidden since last year following the execution-style killings of three Argentines, allegedly by Mexican hit men, last August.
Two of the victims owned pharmacies that imported large quantities of the chemical for use in cold medicines, but allegedly intended to sell it instead to gangs from Mexico, which banned the substance in 2007.
Forced to acknowledge how Argentina’s wide-open ephedrine market was attracting Mexican cartels, the government ordered drugmakers at the end of last year to obtain prior approval before importing the chemical.
Monday’s discovery is the second this month. Another 4 tonnes of properly declared ephedrine was discovered abandoned in a customs service depository in the port of Buenos Aires. Castro said the two discoveries were unrelated, and that police are still trying to determine if that ephedrine is legal.
All 8 tonnes will remain under a judge’s supervision while cases are pending, and then be destroyed, Castro said.
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